Le Blog de Frivole

Saturday, 12 August 2017

Still working on the green doily but got side-tracked by another pair of socks. I should have had a change of colour but I had a skein of Cascade Heritage sock yarn that was waiting in my basket... so green it is again! These are "Here Be Dragons" by Rachel Gent.

I'm just a few rows away from the ribbing on these and then I'll be done. The interesting stitch appealed to me... as well as the name! They look great in purple on the original.

Not worth showing any progress on the green doily as it's just a bit more of the same from the previous post. Still have a long way to go before I complete that last row!

Thursday, 3 August 2017

How exciting! Yes, I'm on the last round! I must admit I didn't think I'd get to the end of this big project so quickly. I've not shown the whole thing for the last few posts as I'm saving it for the big reveal when it's all completed.

Thursday, 27 July 2017

After my last burst of activity, I have slowed down a bit as I work on the penultimate round of my green doily. This is another simple round of tiny rings connected with 8-8 chains.

🌿 🌸 🌿

And I finished another pair of socks. These are "Ribbed Ribbon Socks" by Wendy Johnson, from her book "Socks from the Toe Up". I really love working with Cascade Heritage sock wool, it's beautifully soft and a joy to knit with. It's the second time I've used it but the first pair I gave away so I'm looking forward to wearing this one to see how the wool performs with wearing and washing. The cascade sock wool has a fabulous range of colours so I'm already looking forward to knitting the next pair.

They don't look like much in this "relaxed" state... and I nearly took them apart when I first started because I wasn't sure I liked them at all but I persevered and in the end, I think they're interesting looking... when worn! I finished them off with my picot crochet cast-off which does look a bit frilly when unstretched (in above photo) but looks great when worn and is really stretchy and comfortable. I tried many different cast-offs for toe-up socks and this is my favourite at the moment. I decided afterwards I should have carried on with the pattern a bit higher up the leg but never mind, it'll be for the next pair.

Thursday, 20 July 2017

One more round completed. Just two left! It looks like I might make it to the end of this doily quicker than I expected. Still, you don't know what can happen before completion of these two final rounds... I could easily get side-tracked by something else...

And I'm delighted to say that I tatted some of that last row whilst sitting with Michelle of Telamagistrae! She was in the UK visiting a friend and we found out we were not so far from each other. We arranged a get-together and had a very enjoyable few hours together, chatting, tatting, sharing tips, eating and drinking! It was lovely to meet her.

You should go and check out the whole thing. There are different ways of combining the design and two squares. Robin is really clever in designing these. I'm impressed. She even describes the whole process of designing a magic square. It's really interesting.

You can tat this as a magic square but you can also just tat it as is and attach on the sides. I love the magic square idea... but sometimes I also just like tatting smaller motifs and attaching and letting it grow as you go instead of deciding in advance how big you'd like it to be.

I like the contrast the onion rings bring to the design. The outside chain of the onion ring is attached with a Catherine Wheel Join. I had to refresh my memory on the CWJ as I'd not had to use it for some time.